Boston Herald
By Sean Phillip Cotter
UMass-Boston is looking to use some federal money to give its nursing school a home in what proponents say could be a big boost to the seaside school.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch announced at a press conference at the Dorchester campus that he has filed an amendment to the next federal appropriations bill to send more than $1.3 million to UMass Boston to house a nursing school there.
“This will be a natural synergy where I think we will become a national leader in this, and we will have an infrastructure that will allow these young people to go right to work — and not just in bedside nursing but also the wider life sciences area,” said Lynch, who held the press conference at the college on Friday alongside local politicians and college brass.
Lynch was touting the $37 million that will go directly to UMass-Boston from the American Rescue Plan, which is the large stimulus bill signed into law by President Biden in February. That would be split about evenly for institutional use and student aid.
UMass-Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco said an expansion and permanent home for the existing nursing program will help give students access to “good-quality, good-paying jobs.”
“This is an extraordinarily important investment for the future of our commonwealth, for the future of the city of Boston, to have 21st century skills in our nursing and health-care practitioners who are at the forefront of so many of the critical and defining issues of our times,” the new chancellor said.
Marty Meehan, the president of the University of Massachusetts system, praised his former congressional colleague for seeking the funds for the nursing school.
“I can’t think of anything more important for this campus than building a world-class school of nursing,” Meehan said. “It’s a priority.”
City Councilor Frank Baker, who also attended the press conference along with state Sen. Nick Collins, D-Boston, and state Rep. David Biele, D-Boston, has sought for some time to have the new nearby Dorchester Bay City development, at the site of the old Bayside Expo Center, house a nursing school for the college, and he said this will help get that idea moving.
“We know every nurse that comes in the front door is going to have a job on on the backside, so the community is pushing for a nursing program and looking for this — specifically the Bayside site to really be a centralized location where there’s a lot of job training going on,” Baker said.
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